To cap off a great month of progress, we have one more round of builds for October. This was going to be a solely bug-fix build, but amazing work kept on rolling in and I’ve decided to get these new features out to you now rather than wait until November.

 

Enemy Spellcasting (Allofich)

Building on top of my work on the magic & effect system, Allofich has wired up foes to hurl spells back at the player. This means ancient liches and vampires are serious threats again, imps are more than just a nuisance, and scorpions and spiders will just wreck your happy feelings with paralysis.

A lot of work was required in enemy AI to select spells based on touch or range. Enemies might stand their ground and hurl a fireball, or approach and attack player with a touch spell. And unlike in classic where the monster’s entire payload of spells are released instantly, they now make more intelligent decisions and release spells at sensible casting intervals. I can’t put into words just how amazing Allofich’s work on this has been. Magic in Daggerfall Unity suddenly doesn’t feel quite so one-sided, and magical encounters have become very dangerous again.

Here’s a short video where I pick a fight with some denizens of Mannimarco’s lair. Everything goes about as well as expected.

direct link to gfy

[gfycat data_id=”UnconsciousWelllitErne”]

 

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New Builds for October 2018

New builds are available on the Live Builds page now. This has been another huge month for Daggerfall Unity. We’re quickly closing the gap towards major parity with classic Daggerfall and exiting pre-alpha. The magic system has taken another big jump forwards this month with the number of implemented spell effects crossing the 90% complete mark.

I’ve also updated the main Roadmap and shifted a few magic-related items out of 0.5 into 0.7. This is so I can create a stable 0.5 build and start the downhill run towards exiting pre-alpha. I don’t think we’ll spend very long in 0.6, 0.7, and 0.8. These milestones have become more a formality at this point.

Alright, let’s unpack what’s new in October!

 

Automap SDF Fonts (Nystul)

The new SDF font system is now functional in automap UI. Now the fonts look smooth whether you’re zoomed all the way in or out of the map.

 

Advanced Climbing System (MeteoricDragon)

Daggerfall Unity isn’t just about reproducing classic 1:1 with quality of life features and mod support. We’re also adding depth to parts of the game that needed a bit more love in classic. If you’re the type of Daggerfall player who enjoys the Acrobat class, you probably want to make sure this option is enabled at Advanced > Enhancements.

 

The Advanced Climbing System allows characters with a high Climbing skill to not only scale walls, but to move in any direction, wrap around corners, cling to the wall, grab walls in the air, and leap off walls. A Khajiit with a high Climbing skill and magic can scale over practically any surface in the game. You can even climb out of water now, rather than face certain drowning.

direct link to gfy

[gfycat data_id=”PlainRichArrowcrab”]

In latest builds, you can rappel down walls by walking backwards off the top. I remember looking everywhere for that rope mentioned in Daggerfall’s manual, only to discover it wasn’t in the game. Well, who needs ropes when you can rappel?

direct link to gfy

[gfycat data_id=”FairGorgeousCaterpillar”]

If you’re a classic purist who prefers just scaling walls, all of these features are optional. Simply disable the Advanced Climbing System in settings and things are back to classic. The Advanced Climbing System is currently enabled by default for testing – and because it’s really fun to play with.

 

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